How to Build a B2B Digital Sales Strategy That Scales

B2B sales feels broken.

That might sound dramatic, but it's mild compared to what's being said in sales circles.

We get it. Cold emails get ignored, LinkedIn messages feel spammy, and prospects don't convert, no matter how much you personalize that outreach. But B2B sales isn't dead—you just need a different playbook.

Digital vs. Traditional Sales Models

Before diving into tactics, it's worth understanding what makes digital sales fundamentally different—and why traditional approaches fall short in many scenarios.

Sales-Led vs. Product-Led Growth

You might wonder if these digital sales tactics only work for traditional sales-led companies. They don't. 

SaaS companies today follow two main growth approaches: 

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  Sales-led growth (SLG) is the standard model where your sales team finds prospects and guides them through the buying process from day one.

  
  
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  Product-led growth (PLG) flips this—the product itself drives acquisition through free trials or freemium experiences, and sales only gets involved later to expand successful accounts.

  
  

The digital sales tactics in this guide work for both models. Sales-led companies use them for prospecting and initial outreach. PLG companies apply the same tactics later on to identify expansion opportunities based on product usage signals.

Why B2B Digital Sales Strategies Matter Today

Your prospects are more informed, more distracted, and harder to reach than ever before. And that’s precisely a tested framework. Fortunately, we’ve got just the thing. 

Fragmented Tech, Shorter Attention Spans

According to HockeyStack's recent follow-up to their , it now takes 19.8% more touchpoints to close B2B deals than it did just a few years ago. Your target audience’s attention is split across email, LinkedIn, Slack, industry publications, and vendor websites. 

Traditional single-channel outreach gets lost in this noise. This means you need coordinated multi-channel strategies to break through and stay visible across their fragmented consumption habits.

Data and Timing Is a Competitive Edge

Prospects leave digital breadcrumbs everywhere—job changes on LinkedIn, funding announcements in press releases, visits to your pricing page. Modern software turns these signals into intent data and triggers alerts, giving sales teams real-time visibility into buying interest. 

Selling to Multiple Stakeholders

Sopro's State of Prospecting report shows that, on average, four people are involved in a buying decision—and sometimes even more. 

You need to sell to multiple stakeholders—and each of them comes with their own priorities and concerns. Yet you can't manually personalize messaging for every stakeholder across multiple accounts. Digital automation lets you deliver the right content to the right person at the right time instantly.

The B2B Digital Sales Strategy Framework

The problem isn't your messaging—it's timing and targeting. You're either reaching the right people when they're not ready to buy or hitting prospects at what seems to be the perfect moment, but they're not actually your ideal point of contact.

This 10-step framework gives you modern approaches to identify, attract, and convert prospects with the highest potential.

1. Define Your ICP and Trigger Signals

Say your target accounts are ecommerce businesses with 50 to 200 employees, and the decision-makers are heads of marketing. That's nice. But you need to go beyond firmographics. 

The target contact at the company you’re pursuing might not care about your solution today. But that same person becomes a hot prospect the moment their company announces Series B funding, their CMO leaves, or they post three new marketing roles on LinkedIn. 

Your ICP sits at the intersection of demographics and intent signals that indicate buyer readiness.

Here are the most common intent signals:

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  Financial: Series A/B/C funding announcements, PE/VC acquisition, IPO preparation, revenue milestone announcements

  
  
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  Personnel changes: New C-suite hires in your target function, VP departures, relevant job postings, rapid headcount growth or reduction

  
  
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  Market movement: Compliance requirement changes in their industry, merger/acquisition announcements

  
  
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  Behavioral: Pricing page visits, webinar attendance, industry benchmark report downloads, LinkedIn engagement with your category-specific content, G2 or Capterra profile visits

  
  

To track those and act on these signals promptly, set up real-time monitoring systems:

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  Google Alerts for trigger keywords from target accounts ("funding," "hiring," "expansion")

  
  
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  LinkedIn Sales Navigator alerts for job changes and company updates

  
  
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  Intent data platforms like Bombora, 6sense, or Leadfeeder for buyer behavior signals

  
  
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  RSS feeds from industry publications and company blogs

  
  
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  Tools like Artisan for intent tracking and immediate, automated outreach

  
  

Create different response protocols for different signals. For example, outreach to a new VP of Sales should look different from outreach to a product champion who has visited your pricing page. 

In addition, turn triggers into conversation starters and connect them to their probable pain points: "Congrats on the Series B! With that kind of growth pressure, I imagine scaling your sales team efficiently is top of mind," beats "I saw your funding announcement," every time.

2. Make Email Your Always-On Channel

Even with all those triggers in place, manually researching each account when signals fire is a huge time sink. 

Instead of having your reps spend hours researching triggers and writing custom emails, use AI-powered tech that monitors for signals, researches each prospect's company context, and crafts personalized sequences automatically.

Here’s how to automate outreach:

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  Step 1: Map each trigger type to a specific email sequence (you can map more than one trigger to a single sequence).

  
  
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  Step 2: Set up automated research to pull company context, recent news, and team changes.

  
  
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  Step 3: Configure timing rules—when a message should fire.

  
  
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  Step 4: Use message templates that reference the trigger, connect to pain points, and include clear next steps.

  
  
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  Step 5: Enable automatic sequence launching when triggers fire

  
  

For example, when Artisan's AI sales rep Ava detects that a company has made a new leadership hire, she doesn't stop at a generic template. She researches their recent product launches, checks their team size growth, and crafts a personalized message.

3. Dominate LinkedIn Outreach

According to Expandi’s  report, State of LinkedIn Outreach, LinkedIn sees reply rates of 10.3%. That’s because LinkedIn allows you to build context and credibility before you pitch, turning cold outreach into warm conversations.

So, should you jump to LinkedIn outreach right away?

It’s not really about picking between email or LinkedIn. Both channels reinforce each other. Use LinkedIn to warm up prospects before sending that first email. Alternatively, follow up on LinkedIn when email responses go cold. 

Here’s how to use LinkedIn for outreach:

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  Engage with prospect content for three to five days before connecting (meaningful comments, not a generic "Great post!").

  
  
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  Reference specific content they posted, mention mutual connections, or cite industry events you both attended.

  
  
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  Use LinkedIn to support email campaigns.

  
  
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  Follow this social selling sequence: View profile, engage with content, connect, share value, soft introduction, pitch (only after the relationship is established).

  
  

You’ll also save a ton of time by automating LinkedIn outreach alongside email sequences. Make sure your sales automation tool supports multi-channel workflows that coordinate email and LinkedIn touchpoints.

4. Run Paid Ads and Retargeting

Most B2B teams treat paid ads as a marketing function, but smart sales teams use ads as an extension of their outreach strategy. When done right, paid ads create multiple touchpoints that make your cold outreach feel less... cold.

Here’s a rundown of best practices for successfully using paid ads in combination with outbound:

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  Target your ICP with search ads: Bid on competitor terms (e.g., "[Competitor] alternative") and bottom-of-funnel keywords (e.g., "best [category] software").

  
  
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  Run LinkedIn ads to decision-makers: Target specific job titles at your target accounts with personalized copy mentioning their company.

  
  
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  Set up behavior-based retargeting: Pricing page visitors get customer logos and ROI calculators, blog readers get relevant case studies.

  
  
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  Create account-based advertising: Upload target account lists and serve personalized ads, e.g., "How [Company Name] Can Reduce Sales Admin by 40%."

  
  
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  Coordinate with rep activity: Increase ad spend to target accounts when your reps are actively prospecting them.

  
  

Here's a practical paid ad playbook for inspiration:

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   Start serving ads to target accounts one to two weeks before your SDRs begin outreach. When that first email lands, it's not from a complete stranger—it's from "that company I keep seeing ads for."

   
   
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   Increase ad frequency and personalization when prospects are in active email or LinkedIn sequences. If Sarah from TechCorp is getting emails from your SDR, she should also be seeing "How TechCorp can..." ads on LinkedIn and retargeting ads when she's browsing industry sites.

   
   
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   After someone takes a demo, they typically go dark for two to four weeks while they evaluate options internally. Retargeting ads keep you top-of-mind during this crucial period.

   
   

Automate your outbound with an AI BDR

Meet Ava—your AI BDR who handles prospecting, outreach, and follow-ups, so your team can focus on closing.

Book a Demo

5. Run Content and SEO Campaigns That Pull Leads In

According to HubSpot’s Sales Trends report, 96% of consumers research independently before speaking to a company rep. Your content needs to be there when they're looking.

The mistake many teams make is focusing on top-funnel content that drives vanity traffic. While broad awareness content works for companies with large budgets, scrappy teams get better ROI by aligning content with their sales strategy from day one.

To drive leads, not just readers, focus on keywords that indicate bottom-funnel intent:

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  "[Your category] pricing"

  
  
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  "Best [competitor] alternatives"

  
  
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  "[Specific use case] software"

  
  
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  "How to [solve specific problem]"

  
  

Create dedicated landing pages, case studies, and comparison articles for each high-intent keyword that directly address the search query.

But creating the content isn't enough—you need to connect it to your outbound sales workflow. Set up visitor tracking for specific high-intent pages to trigger personalized outreach automatically. 

Here's how to make every content interaction feed your sales pipeline:

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   Track visitors to your pricing page, competitor comparison guides, and case studies separately. Each page visit indicates different buyer intent and requires unique messaging.

   
   
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   Create distinct campaigns for different content interactions. Someone who reads your "Sales Team Scaling Playbook" gets a sequence about scaling challenges, while pricing page visitors get ROI-focused messaging.

   
   

So how do you coordinate all these moving pieces?

With a sales automation tool like Artisan, you can set up tracking pixels on any page and automatically launch personalized outreach when target accounts engage. Artisan's AI BDR Ava doesn't send a generic follow-up—she crafts personalized outreach and tracks lead engagement. 

6. Map Buyer Roles and Sales Content

Content powers every digital interaction, so beyond picking the right queries, you need to map your assets to the right people. 

B2B deals involve multiple stakeholders with different priorities. Link each persona with their core pain point and the asset that addresses this pain point. 

Generally, buyer roles fall into four categories:.

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  Champions (end users): Focus on efficiency and ease of use. Provide product demos, workflow tutorials, and time-saving calculators.

  
  
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  Technical evaluators: Address integration concerns and security requirements. Equip your team with technical specs, API documentation, and security compliance sheets.

  
  
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  Budget holders (executives): Focus on ROI and business impact. Provide business cases, ROI calculators, and executive summary one-pagers.

  
  
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  Procurement/legal: Address contract terms and vendor risk. Provide reference lists, compliance certifications, and implementation timelines.

  
  

7. Partner Up and Co-Sell

Your prospects already trust certain vendors in adjacent categories. A smart partnership will help you tap into that existing trust instead of building it from zero.

Target companies that serve your ICP but don't compete directly. If you sell sales software, partner with marketing automation platforms, CRM providers, or consulting firms. Their customers are already qualified prospects for your solution.

There are three main types of partnerships:

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  Co-marketing campaigns: Create joint content that showcases how your solutions work together, e.g., "How Company X Increased Pipeline by 40% Using [Partner Tool] & [Your Tool]."

  
  
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  Joint webinars: Your partner promotes to their list, you promote to yours. Both companies tap into leads they couldn't reach solo.

  
  
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  Integration partnerships: Build native integrations with complementary tools. For example, HubSpot's app marketplace is a lead generation machine because prospects specifically hunt for solutions (like HubSpot) that play nice with tools they already use.

  
  

Don't just wing it—create formal partner enablement programs. Hook your partners up with commission structures that actually motivate them to refer, exclusive integration features for their customers, and co-branded marketing materials.

Most importantly, use the vendors your prospects actually mention during discovery calls, not the ones you think they should use. What you have in mind may be very different from the real tools in their stack.

8. Automate Your Campaigns

It’s crucial to automate as much as you can. The preceding suggestions will only work as well as your automation. 

Here are the cornerstones of effective automation:

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  Trigger-based campaigns: Integrate your trigger tracking, CRM, and outreach workflows into one system. When a prospect gets promoted or their company announces funding, for example, campaigns should launch automatically. Ideally, your sales automation software will handle all three components.

  
  
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  Multi-channel coordination: Set up workflows that manage more than just email. Coordinate LinkedIn outreach, retargeting ads, and phone calls so every touchpoint reinforces your message across channels.

  
  
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  AI-powered personalization: Use AI to personalize every message based on recent company news, role changes, and trigger events. This can be built into the same platform managing your campaigns for seamless messaging.

  
  

With Artisan, all three pieces work together—she monitors triggers, crafts personalized messages, and coordinates outreach across email and LinkedIn automatically.

9. Layer Multi-Channel Plays

With key tactics and automation in place, you need to make them all play well together. Without coordination, you're leaving money on the table—multichannel campaigns see a 31% lower cost per lead (CPL) than single-channel outreach.

Orchestrate channels so they reinforce each other instead of competing. Each channel should build on the previous one, creating a cohesive narrative.

Here’s an example of a multi-channel automation sequence:

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  Day 1: Trigger fires, followed by a personalized email mentioning that trigger

  
  
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  Day 3: LinkedIn connection request referencing the same trigger

  
  
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  Ongoing: Retargeting ads with relevant case studies and ROI content

  
  
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  Day 7: Follow-up email with a different angle on the same core message

  
  
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  Day 10: LinkedIn message referencing the previous email

  
  

10. Track, Analyze, and Optimize

You probably won’t need every tactic covered here, and some workflows will look different from others. But it takes testing and execution to figure out what works for your market.

Monitor these metrics to identify your winning approach:

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  Reply rate by channel: Which touchpoints generate responses? A good email reply rate might be 3%, while LinkedIn could hit 10%—though it varies significantly by niche.

  
  
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  SQLs per channel: Track how many qualified leads each channel and technique produces.

  
  
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  Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Calculate total spend (tools, time, and ads) divided by customers acquired per channel.

  
  
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  Channel ROI: Which combination of touchpoints delivers the highest return on investment?

  
  

That said, when you spot a channel underperforming, don't abandon it immediately. You also need to test the following variables before deciding to shut down underperforming channels:

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  A/B test messaging: Test different subject lines, opening hooks, and call-to-actions across channels.

  
  
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  Sequence timing: Test spacing between touchpoints—does three days work better than seven  days between email and LinkedIn?

  
  
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  Channel combinations: Test email-only vs. email and LinkedIn vs. full multi-channel sequences.

  
  

The Best B2B Digital Sales Strategy Examples to Learn From

Theory is one thing; implementation is another. Fortunately, there are plenty of examples of companies that have built scalable digital sales strategies. Even better, you can copy them. 

1. AI Outbound with Ava (Artisan x bioaccess)

bioaccess used an AI agent to handle all their outreach automatically, scaling their lead generation without hiring more sales reps.

Before Artisan, bioaccess relied on reactive word-of-mouth marketing and struggled to scale without additional headcount. 

With AI agent Ava handling 24/7 mass outreach, the company achieved a consistent 1.2% positive response rate and transformed into what their CEO calls "a money-making machine" with systematic lead generation.

The automation gave them the scalable business development process needed for their planned acquisition exit strategy.

2. LiveRamp’s Account-Based Selling Strategy

LiveRamp focused all their efforts on just 15 high-value accounts and turned it into $50 million in revenue.

LiveRamp adopted account-based marketing to target their 15 best-fit Fortune 500 clients. They created personalized multichannel campaigns that included customized display ads, email outreach, and direct mail, all while tightly coordinating sales and marketing efforts. 

The targeted approach generated over $50 million in annual revenue, proving that focusing resources on high-value prospects delivers exponentially better ROI than broad outreach.

3. Grammarly’s Smart Lead Scoring

Grammarly used AI to automatically identify their best prospects and cut their sales cycle in half.

Grammarly implemented AI-based lead scoring using Salesforce's Einstein platform to identify multiple users from the same company and predict their need for business plans. Before automation, their marketing team spent hours manually building email lists to generate upgrade interest. 

The AI system scores leads based on the number of users at each company and how they engage with Grammarly resources, automatically routing leads to the best salesperson. 

This shift resulted in 200 high-quality leads per month with a 30% increase in MQL conversion and an 80% increase in customers upgrading their accounts. Deal closing time improved from 60 to 90 days to just 30 days.

Tools That Power Modern B2B Sales

There’s no shortage of sales tools, which makes it easy to end up with a Frankenstein setup while trying to bring your framework to life. The goal is to build an automation stack that’s powerful, not bloated.

CRMs, Automation Platforms, and Sales Enablement Tools

Multiple tools handle different parts of outbound sales, and while many overlap in functionality, here's how they break down at a high level:

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  CRMs keep track of contacts and all touchpoints. 

  
  
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  Sales enablement tools focus on enhancing team performance and store training, content, and coaching resources. 

  
  
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  Revenue intelligence platforms give deeper insights into your sales activities and customer relationships than basic CRMs through call analysis and deal forecasting.

  
  
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  Automation platforms connect all the dots together, orchestrating workflows between your other tools and automating repetitive tasks.

  
  

Ava by Artisan Is the AI BDR That Runs Your Pipeline

Artisan’s AI BDR is called Ava, and she eliminates the need for a messy tech stack. All you need to move deals from prospecting to closing is Ava plus your CRM.

Ava automates all the following tasks: 

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  Prospecting based on your ICP criteria

  
  
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  Ghostwriting and sending 1000s of personalized emails on your behalf

  
  
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  Multi-channel sequences across email and LinkedIn

  
  
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  Follow-up cadences across multiple channels

  
  
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  Meetings booked directly into your calendar

  
  

It’s no secret that personalized outreach consistently outperforms generic templates. With Ava, your messages naturally achieve higher conversion rates. 

Build Your B2B Digital Sales Strategy

You’ve got the tactics, examples, and tools—here’s how to use them without getting overwhelmed by trying to do everything at once.

Quick Start Checklist

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   Define your ICPs and their main buying triggers. Map your ideal customer profiles beyond demographics—include behavioral signals like funding announcements, new hires, and technology changes that indicate buying readiness.

   
   
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   Pick two to three outreach channels. Don't spread yourself thin across every platform. Focus on email, LinkedIn, and one additional channel (ads or additional social media platforms). 

   
   
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   Set specific goals tied to the bottom line. Track metrics like number of SQLs or closed-won deals. 

   
   

Action Plan in Practice

As you put your plan into practice, remember that two major factors will drive your success.

First, always align sales and marketing touchpoints. When marketing engages a prospect and identifies intent signals, sales should engage within hours, not days. Given how simple it is to automate this, you can't afford to miss out on the benefits of alignment.

Second, schedule regular granular data reviews. Once your sales engine is running, don't become mired in ineffective practices. Look beyond response rates and lead volume—track which triggers, messages, and channels actually drive closed deals and revenue.

Keep Your Sales Machine On All the Time

Your prospects are already preparing to buy from someone using the strategies described in this article. The question is whether that someone will be you or your competition. 

With Ava, you can adopt AI-powered sales automation that handles prospecting, personalization, and multi-channel outreach automatically at scale. The results? Higher-quality leads and reps that are free to focus on the all-important human elements of selling. 

Automate your outbound with an AI BDR

Meet Ava—your AI BDR who handles prospecting, outreach, and follow-ups, so your team can focus on closing.

Book a Demo